Protesters, security forces killed during Syrian demonstrations

Twenty-four protesters and 19 members of the security forces died yesterday during clashes in the flashpoint town of Daraa and other cities as thousands rallied for democracy around the country for a fourth week.

And in the city of Homs, north of the capital, an undetermined number of people were wounded in clashes between security forces and demonstrators, another activist said.

Twenty-four protesters were killed yesterday in three Syrian cities during anti-regime protests, said Ammar Qurabi, head of Syria’s National Organisation for Human Rights.

“We have the names of 17 demonstrators killed in Daraa only, and we have been told of the deaths of two protesters in Homs and three in Harasta,” Mr Qurabi said by telephone.

After an earlier toll of 13 was given for the number of deaths in Daraa, the authorities on the other hand stated that only two people had been killed.

The activist said security forces opened fire with rubber bullets and live rounds to disperse stone-throwing protesters.

“Thousands of demonstrators leaving from three mosques marched to the courthouse but security forces dressed in civilian clothing fired tear gas to disperse them,” said the activist.

“Demonstrators threw stones and clashes ensued,” the activist said, adding that “the situation is very tense” in Daraa, some 100 kilometres south of Damascus.

Protesters angered by the deaths set fire to the ruling Baath party’s headquarters in Daraa, he added.

State television said “saboteurs and conspirators opened fire on residents and security forces” alike in the town, killing two people - an officer and an ambulance man.

The official Sana news agency said dozens of civilians, security and police were wounded.

State television broadcast footage showing young men in keffiyehs standing behind trees while the sound of automatic weapons fire could be heard.

The southern city of Daraa has been the focal point of anti-government protests marred by deadly violence which human rights activists blame on the security services and the government has attributed to an “armed” group.

President Bashar al-Assad, under popular pressure to introduce major political reforms and end emergency powers which give security services great leeway to crush dissent, had ordered a probe into previous protest casualties in Daraa.

Abdel Karim Rihawi, who heads the Syrian League for the Defence of Human rights said a number of people were injured in clashes in the industrial city of Homs and that there had also been fighting in Harasta, just north of the capital.

Mr Rihawi also said several thousand people demonstrated in the port city of Banias and Tal, 20 kilometres north of Damascus.

The rallies, he said, were staged in solidarity with the “martyrs” of protests in Douma, Daraa and Latakia, and demonstrators chanted “God, Syria and freedom.”

Thousands of people also marched in five towns in northern Syria, mainly in predominantly Kurdish Hassake and Ammuda, calling for an end to emergency rule and the release of prisoners, another rights activist said.

“More than 3,000 people, Kurds, Arabs and Assyrians (Christians), demonstrated in Qamishli after Friday prayers before staging a sit-in on the main road,” Kurdish rights activist Radif Mustafa said.